Mario Toso

Who is Mario Toso?

Mario Toso SDB is the current Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 22 October 2009.

Toso was born in Mogliano Veneto. He was professed a member the Salesians of Don Bosco on 16 August 1967. He studied philosophy and theology at the Faculty of Theology in Turin. He obtained a baccalaureate in theology. He was ordained a priest on 22 July 1978.

He holds a doctorate in philosophy at the Catholic University of Sacro Cuore in Milan in 1978. He earned a licentiate in philosophy from the Pontifical Salesian University in 1981 and a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Lateran University in 1982. Since 1980 he has served as Professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical Salesian University from 1991 and is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, from 1994 to 2000. He was Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the same University and from 2003 to 2009, he was Rector. He served as a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Toso was one of the collaborators consulted by Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in veritate.